Glee’s Amber Riley refused to film a sex scene for Mercedes and Sam
Amber Riley revealed that she then put her foot down cheerfulness writers created a sex scene for her character Mercedes Jones.
“There was supposed to be an episode where she lost her virginity to Sam [Chord Overstreet] and I told it [executive producer] Brad [Falchuk]“Absolutely not,” Riley, 38, revealed during the Thursday, February 29, episode of “And you REALLY missed that“podcast.
“He gave me the blue pages [where it] was written and I said, ‘No,'” she added of the surprising storyline.
Riley’s former costars Jenna Ushkowitz And Kevin McHalewho are the hosts of the cheerfulness recap podcast, laughed in shock when they learned the behind-the-scenes scoop happened over time that they had no idea about.
Lea Michele and more Glee alumni have found their happily ever after off-screen. The Fox musical drama aired for six seasons between 2009 and 2015. Michele and late costar Cory Monteith played New Directions leaders Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson, respectively, sparking a real-life romance while playing the high school sweethearts. They dated until […]
“[Brad] said, “Okay, well, what if instead of…” because it seemed like a complete scene and I said, “I’m not doing it.” He said, “Well, what if we just know, you guys hold hands and we walk into the room and then close the door?”
Riley recalled being unimpressed by the alternative angle directed at her, and said she dismissed that idea as well. “I was like, ‘No.’
McHale, 35, praised Riley for her actions at the time, saying: “Amazing. Respect.”
Riley continued to elaborate on the storyline situation, explaining that this was something she couldn’t get behind.
“I said, ‘I’m not doing it. I never say ‘no’ to you. I don’t argue about anything… But this?!?’”
The actress went on to say that there were several reasons why she wasn’t a fan of that particular direction the show wanted her character to go.
“It just would have been so awkward, and I feel like it would have been awkward,” she said. “I also just feel like, yeah, this wasn’t what my character would have done. I just didn’t have that feeling.”
In season 5 of cheerfulnessMercedes had stated that she was not ready to have sex and wanted to wait for marriage, and Riley felt that her character should “stick to her guns.”
The hosts applauded her and talked about the importance of choosing your battles when working on sets, to which Riley replied, “I chose it.”
Despite that one screenplay, Riley said looking back now, she loved acting alongside Overstreet, now 35, and has no other bad memories when it came to the sitcom script.
“Agree [was] sweet,” she opened. ‘He’s just so sweet. It was very similar to his character. He looks like boy Bambi.”
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However, the actress did admit that she was initially nervous about having an on-screen relationship with Overstreet.
“It was my first relationship on TV,” she clarified. “I was always the kind of person who was generally very career-oriented and driven. In general I didn’t go out much, so it was difficult to experience that on television. It was so awkward at first, and then you don’t know what the other person is thinking and feeling. And because you’re also a bigger girl on television, you’re not always shown in the best light in relationships, and you’re like, ‘Where is this going?’ So ultimately we had to have those kinds of conversations about where the story was going to go because, you know, with our characters, we were very sensitive but protective about those characters, because [they] means so much to so many people. So you want to protect that a little bit, and I think they’ve done a great job. I think they really did a great job [with] even shows high school relationships [because] they are not that deep. They’re very superficial, you know what I mean? People don’t really stay together after high school, and they become different people and they grow and all that stuff.
cheerfulness first premiered on Fox in 2009 and aired until 2015. Riley appeared on the series as a main cast member for every season except season 5, where she was a guest star.